Maybe this was your first Olympics with access to NBC’s online feeds (or perhaps you are a lucky Canadian who can access live events all the time). Maybe you coincidentally happened to have 14 days off work (counting weekends) during the 17 days of the Summer Olympics. Maybe you are now exhibiting symptoms such as disorientation with your sudden abundance of free time, queasiness when watching sports where anthems are played before the game begins, and a compulsion to introduce Olympic athletes into only tangentially related topics (such as, say, Usain Bolt in a conversation about stealing bases on a Cardinals broadcast). You may be suffering from an Olympics Hangover. And, like those other types of hangovers, there are various methods for dealing with it.

We knew, going in, that the London Olympics would be the first to feature female athletes from every participating country. We knew that there were more women than men on both the US Olympic team and at the Olympics overall. But Thursday, with gold medal matches in both women’s football and water polo, and the first ever gold medals awarded in women’s boxing, seemed even more special for women’s sports (particularly if you happen to be a fan of the US). The 1918 Hartlepool Expansion Ladies Football Team* up there would no doubt approve.

It’s no secret that women’s beach volleyball players wear some incredibly skimpy outfits when they compete.

What I guess I didn’t realize is how many pigs are out there only watching them for the T&A. I’ve been pretty appalled by the number of people in my Twitter timeline making sexist remarks about how they shouldn’t even be playing if they can’t do it almost naked. These are friends and other sports writers who I normally agree with and respect.

Here’s the thing – I don’t begrudge these ladies their bikinis. Beach volleyball is a fringe sport that I’m certain struggles to get money and attention. Misty May Treanor and Kerri Walsh Jennings are household names and that just wouldn’t be the case if they didn’t do what they do in bikinis. It helps that they’re incredibly talented at it and have won many, many medals and competitions. But people started noticing them because they weren’t wearing many clothes.

And so I say, more power to you, fringe athletes. You do what you need to do to get noticed and get sponsorships and get viewers. You sell your non-profitting selves any which way you can.

Which I suppose isn’t a very feminist point of view. I should be railing against the misogyny that leads to women athletes feeling like they have to use sex appeal to sell themselves and their sport. And while that’s true, it’s a fight we’ve been having for decades and it’s not changing any time soon, so in the meantime, if i looked like these ladies do, I’d be shaking what my mama gave me if it meant TV time and sponsorship money.

So does that make me a hypocrite for getting mad at all the folks who are treating these ladies like pieces of meat instead of world-class athletes?

This lovely picture of London Bridge’s Olympic rings was taken by my sister-in-law. Thanks, sis!

It’s hard to believe, but the Olympics are finally only days away, not weeks away, and so it must be time for Olympic Bingo! (Actually, if our search stats are to be believed, a bunch of you think it’s past time for Olympic Bingo. Hopefully two days is enough prep time for your Opening Ceremonies parties.)

What would you do if you received a call telling you that you have been chosen as your country’s flag bearer for the 2012 London Olympic Games? Burst into tears? Panic? Reach for the wine? Go for a run?

That’s exactly what triathlete Simon Whitfield did upon receiving the news: a jaunt through Victoria, BC all the way to the Terry Fox marker, where he gave the statue a high five.

Whitfield won gold at the Sydney Games in 2000, when the triathlon made its Olympic debut. He picked up a silver in Beijing. He’s also won gold at the Commonwealth Games and has 14 World Cup victories. At 37, he’s not exactly the youngest athlete on Team Canada (that honour belongs to teen gymnast Victoria Moors) but I don’t buy the notion that his age will work against him. It may, however, be one of his last competitions: Whitfield is deeply focused on his role as a father to two young daughters, and training obviously takes his time away from them. You can’t hit a news story, blog post or even his Facebook page without Whitfield talking about them. ADORBS!

And don’t talk to Whitfield about this nonsense of the Flag Bearer’s Jinx! “It’s so last century,” he told CBC Sports. You gotta love his confidence!